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Business didn't start going downhill when Bret was champion. The bloom was long off the rose, and Hogan left WWF in the lurch, big time. There was pretty much no one, other than Bret (until Shawn), who could have possibly taken the mantle, as proven by Diesel tanking as champ in 1995. Shawn didn't do so well, either.
It's absolutely fucking idiotic to say "don't push Bret," given there was nobody else. What? You going to give Mabel the belt? All you could really do at that time was hold fort. You could argue Taker, but they did a lot to damage his character in those years.
It took until Austin for things to turn around. A guy that Bret helped make. Not to say there's no Austin without Bret--but Steve himself credits Bret for his development and finding himself as a character.
Then, when Bret turned up in WCW, he was hot. They actively chose not to do anything with him. Should he have been the flagship of the show? Probably not. But they could have used him as a more integral facet, as opposed to just another guy.
For a guy who shits on "stats" all the time, Destor is more than happy to use them as confirmation bias.
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